Many pots, one burner

Concentration, L. Dunn 2009

Slowly the pile of notebooks regrows. Still need to dye, print, make pins. Three holiday shows in two weeks. Where are those mice who sew for you after dark?

I taught my Alzheimer's class today. Everyone focused. Only one student wandered away. They did not notice the fire drill. People painted with fierce attention. The encouragement of others made them smile. I stayed late to hang their paintings in the classroom.

Lots of inspiration in the house. From the library: Lisa Cyr's Art Revolution plus an arm-load of books about watercolor.
From the postman, my very own copy of Rayna Gillman's Create Your Own Handprinted Fabric. I am ready to go throw paint around. But first I will make cookies for the high-school drama kids, who work until 10 pm every night this week.

Crit Request

On the wall now:
Too many birds? Circles? I think I need to wash over some of the circles with pale blue or white to tone them down. Also perhaps I will add weight on the left. What goes in the bottom right corner? Something warm, perhaps, to echo the top right, and the right hand tree.

Breakfast Crisis and New Vocabulary

From the Globe Business section today comes news of the impending frozen waffle shortage.
Also worth a visit today, an article about alternative swear words. I vow to add "Hooshtah!" to my conversation.

I want to sew, but today is vacuuming, cooking, and doing the household books. Bah humbug. So I am reading movie reviews instead. I did draw in the kitchen last night , with "Says You" for company.

Advice from the Masters

"Nobody will stop you from creating. Do it tonight. Do it tomorrow. That is the way to make your soul grow - whether there is a market for it or not! The kick of creation is the act of creating, not anything that happens afterward..."

"I would tell all of you watching this screen: Before you go to bed, write a four line poem. Make it as good as you can. Don't show it to anybody. Put it where nobody will find it. And you will discover that you have your reward. " - Kurt Vonnegut

Inspired by this, I took an arm-load of pieces to the big studio and worked. Caffeine, music, think, sew. Five hours later I have two pieces on the design wall and at least four pieced and ready for the next step. No wonder I've felt restless:

And from Annie Dillard, remembered by Alexander Chee: “You are the only one of you...Your unique perspective, at this time, in our age... is what matters. Don’t worry about being original...Yes, everything’s been written, but also, the thing you want to write, before you wrote it, was impossible to write. Otherwise it would already exist. You writing it makes it possible.”

Still wish someone else would make supper...

enough of time away

Desultory day - weird heat, grey skies. I pinned and repinned Deer Moon up at the big studio. Got good input from friends and finally left in on the idea wall to sulk, or stew, or something. Hope to get up there and work it out on Thursday. Folks were restless at my teaching job too.

At home I am trying to make our small space feel less overwhelmed with My Stuff - always a problem right before the holiday sales. Digging and sorting I stumbled back on this idea, one of those "evening-before-the-show" brainstorms back in October.

They are pins, about 2 inches on a side. I sewed the collages from tiny scraps of hand-dyed and -printed fabrics. I think they have an air of loneliness about them. The photos are from a class picture my father was in, nearly a hundred years ago.

Another Show

This Saturday I worked my favorite show, at the Concord First Parish Church. Everyone is so generous and happy to be there. Pardon my fuzzy pictures. A woman asked if I would like the box of hand-crocheted pieces her mother left behind. Many people liked new wee bags and note-minders, my name for the tiny portfolios. And two people bought mounted, modestly-priced art, which raised my spirits. Today I'm drifting around - always happens after such focus. The weather is bizarre and beautiful - nearly 70. So I am going to go buy flowers for my students to paint tomorrow, and bulbs for me to put into the ground today.

I have a couple dozen scarves to dye and t-shirts to print, so after this blissful break, I must get back into the big studio and work.

Speed Tour

Adrien Bisson, who's photographed some of my work, made a video "tour" of Western Avenue studios. Lowell Fiber Studios zooms past about half way through.



Oooo makes me wish I were up there printing and dyeing right now. Instead I'm shivering, drinking quantities of tea, sleeping like Rip Van Winkle, and wondering if this is The Flu or just What's Going Around.